Information technology, applied.

Extra Sensory AR

Flying home from a business trip last night in very stormy weather gave me another idea for an augmented reality application. Augmented reality glasses could function as sensor feed viewers. Data feed from sensors could be transformed into simple visuals and display as a heads-up display in the glasses. I don’t what type of sensor can show air turbulence if there even is such a thing but assuming one exists, the pilot could “see” turbulence on his or her augmented reality glasses and then try to avoid it. Likewise, the glasses could allow one to see electromagnetic or radio frequency radiation, infrared, ultraviolet, and probably others.

Airplanes make an interesting example because they are packed with sensors that could, I assume, be feed directly to the pilot’s augmented reality system. In that way the glasses become a new kind of system user interface. The pattern is that the equipment (aircraft, car, or any machine) sends it data in a form that can be overlaid in a meaningful way on the users field of view. Data that is not inherently visual has to be given a visual representation.

This is yet another way that augmented reality glasses could transform our interaction with machines.